Featured Artist: Matt Blue

After reproducing and printing his original artwork for over four years, we recently had the pleasure of chatting to Melbourne based pop-folk artist Matt Blue, whose enchanting work we have long been enamoured with.

Powerfully inspired by mythic cultural traditions, mystical symbolism and folk stories from around the world, Matt creates intriguing visual narratives within a magical, otherworldly realm that reflects his own internal spiritual journey. 

Before developing his current visual language, Matt began his artistic journey as a post-expressionist oil painter before being seduced by the endless possibilities that comics and zines offered as a medium for visual storytelling.

We were thrilled to question Matt about his upcoming comic book release Return of the Time Bandit, which was suitably created amidst the ethereal ambience of the Mullumbimby forest.  Set in a fictional fantasy realm, Return of the Time Bandit follows the escape and ensuing adventures of a trickster entity from exile as he seeks to wreak chaos on the inhabitants of Meru Island.  Read on for more!

Hi Matt, thanks for speaking with us today! Can you tell us a bit about your creative background and your journey as an artist? Where did it all begin?

Thanks for having me! Art making has long been an abiding compulsion, in primary school I would draw intricate ‘tattoos' on myself and others using texta’s and I enjoyed getting lost in drawing elaborate battle scenes on large sheets of paper. But I think what really helped to keep it as a central fixture of my life were out of school art classes and the encouragement I received from my teacher there, Greg Mackay. Going to those classes every week established art as a central feature of my life and I feel enormously grateful to Greg for that.

In saying that, through most of my schooling I was pretty hesitant to the idea of pursuing art as a career. I felt like I wanted to make more of a positive impact on the world by pursuing journalism or politics etc but in my last years of high school, when you start to narrow in on your area of study I found that I couldn’t not make art. And from that point on its become practically all that I do with my time.

How would you describe your unique visual style? Are there any significant experiences, artists or movements that have shaped your style over the years?

I would tentatively label it as Pop-Folk art. There is so much spirit and magic that I get from the folk and mythic traditions of the world and I hope to carry that into my artist practice.

There have been many many significant experiences I have had on my artistic journey but there is one I would like to mention here because I think it was both of singular importance and speaks to the wordless compulsion that is at the heart of the creative process.

Before I developed the art practice I have now, I was an oil painter with a post expressionistic style and I went to art school at RMIT.

But at the end of my first year I felt quite lost and my exposure to the art world was quite disenchanting. While in this frame of mind, over the summer holidays I travelled to India and during that trip I embarked on a solo climb in the Himalayas. The whole way up and the whole way down those titanic mountains I was preoccupied with what to do with my life and it felt like my artistic ambitions and identity were a tremendous burden.

Finally on the last night of the expedition as I was making my way down the mountains I had a nightmare about being stuck in an art world purgatory of endless gallery openings and the next day I decided to completely give up on being an artist.

I felt so much relief from the decision not to return to art school and study something else. However when I returned to Melbourne a very curious thing happened, I found myself compulsively and happily drawing cartoons in a totally new style.

That shift marked the genesis of the kind of work I make today and is a entirely different direction than I ever thought I would take.

A big takeaway from that experience for me was about getting out of your own way and dropping the narrative of what your life should look like to make room for the one that is waiting for you.

You’ve mentioned that you’re in the final stages of completing a comic book called Return of the Time Bandit. Can you share with us an overview of the book, and the events surrounding its creation?

For years as I made my art it felt like it was coming from a real place, and that as much as I was making it also felt like I was discovering it, like exploring some unknown land.

I’ve since named that land ‘Meru Island’ and the comic explores one facet of this place and is the opening story for an ongoing series set on the island world.

This comic is about the Time Bandit who is an archetypal trickster entity, exiled and imprisoned in hidden recesses of the underworld, doomed to an eternal slumber by ancient forces.

It opens with him being awakened by an unknown energy and we then track his adventures through the underworld as he seeks out his portal-wreath. If he is able to defeat the cosmic guards protecting it he can use the wreath to break through layers of reality and wreck havoc on the surface world of Meru Island.

I made the book while living in the jungles of Mullumbimby, which was a suitably magical setting for cultivating the otherworldly energies of this comic.

What motivated your transition from painter to comic book artist, and what draws you to this form of visual storytelling?

For many years I was an oil painter, and I loved it but was also frustrated by its limitations. There was so much material I wanted to explore, especially with narrative. Not long after my journey to the Himalayas, I was exposed to the Melbourne underground comics scene and the magic of artists like Simon Hanselmann, Grant Gronewold and Marc Pearson.

My conception of comics had been largely defined by Marvel superhero stuff and seeing what they were doing with the medium was a revelation. It felt like this endless horizon of possibility where you could incorporate things like poetry, world building, story-telling, philosophy and so on and so on. I am a huge fan of architecture and costumes and I love that in comics I am able to run wild with my ideas for buildings and outfits while telling stories.

What also appealed to me was the affordability zines and comics. With comics, because you can print it en masse, the artist can drench the thing with their best ideas and all of their attention but people are able to purchase it for under $30. That's so cool. I feel like its a very efficient carrier of ideas.

I notice that you’ve kept text and written narrative to a minimum in Return of the Time Bandit. What was the reason behind this creative choice, and in what ways did it change your approach to the visual storytelling aspect of the book?

The comic essentially tracks The Time Bandits progress from the depth of the soul, awash with powerful and inexplicable symbols, a place where words don’t apply until we reach the conscious day light realm of words and reason.

Much of my art practice is inspired by my own solitary spiritual experiences and I wanted to convey something of that in the comic. Words often get in the way of mystery and by leaving them out I hope to evoke that sense of wonderment in the viewer.

It was also important to keep it wordless to evoke the incomprehensible nature of the Time Bandit and the other-worldly setting of the underworld.

We’d love to know more about the world building aspect of the fictional universe you have created. Did you draw inspiration from real-world cultures, events, or other fictional universes when you crafted your comic book world?

I have a huge range of influences in my art generally but for this comic I tuned into a few artists specifically to tap into the right psychic frequency.

The movies of Alejandro Jodorowsky, especially The Holy Mountain were a huge influence. His use of colour and symbolic intensity were a great inspiration. The comics of Möebius. The bold lines of Ben Marcus a.k.a. Goodbye Press. The comics of Herbert Crowley. The music of Sun Araw, especially On Patrol and Off Duty + Boat Trip, which I had playing constantly while composing the comic. I have a copy of the Codex Borgia which is an Aztec religious/divination codice and its inscrutable, powerful imagery was a great inspiration as well.

Now that the book is almost complete, do you have any plans to continue and expand upon the story in the future?

Absolutely, there is a fairly extensive storyline mapped out for the Time Bandit and the world of Meru Island. I'm planning on exploring that through an ongoing series of comics but also other mediums like sculpture, animation, painting and so on.

When can we expect your comic book to be released, and where can it be purchased? Will there be a book release event?

Timely question! The comic should be finished in the next month or so, any publishers reading this feel free to hit me up!

And yes I am planning on doing a release event where I will exhibit the originals, I haven’t clarified the date yet but updates will be on my Instagram.

Looking back, what were the biggest challenges you faced in bringing the book to life? Is there anything you’d do differently if you had to start the process again?

Biggest challenge was keeping my focus on the book alone. I find it very easy to be side-tracked by other ideas and projects and for sure this book was delayed by that. In saying that I don’t know if I would do anything different because I find that all of the side projects are mutually reinforcing. They help you realise the essence of what you are evoking and jumping between projects can help keep things fresh.

What’s next for your creative practise in the coming months or years? Are there any goals or milestones you’re hoping to achieve in the near future?

I’m looking forward to expanding my practice into animation, I’m starting animation school in a few months and dying to combine my images with sound and movement. I’m also experimenting with sculpture more and have plans to collaborate with a dear friend on a public sculpture project, involving projection and animation.

Thanks again for speaking with us Matt, and we look forward to seeing your finished book!